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Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the eat-that-suckers dept.
mattsucks writes "Reuters is reporting a story about the Beijing Evening News. Apparently, they too believe that everything they read on the internet is true, republishing a story from The Onion. Or at least one of their freelance writers believes it...." This is absolutely great.
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More than once Slashdot has published stories from questionable sources which turned out to be completely false. Although it's inevitable for any site that uses reader submitions to sometimes publish hoax stories as it's hard to read every submition that is sent. However I've read many stories in newspapers here (not in china) that came from sources about as or less credible than the onion. China is relatively new to the internet so I suppose they haven't figured out which sites are the joke ones yet.
I guesse we could say: Beijing Newspaper. YHBT. YHL. HAND.
I'd actually like to see someone take the Onion's kids explanation [theonion.com] of why the Sept. terrorist attacks happened seriously.
Good point. This is actually a very serious introduction to some of the key points of modern Islamic fundamentalism. When I first read it I went looked up Qutb. No other major media outlet that I know of has bothered to give people the starting point to actually find out how and why bin Laden came to be.
I'd actually like to see someone take the Onion's kids explanation of why the Sept. terrorist attacks happened seriously.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, the article "Talking To Your Child About the WTC Attack [theonion.com]" is online. In fact, their entire "Holy Fucking Shit: America Under Attack [theonion.com]" It's the single most brilliant issue of the Onion ever. It captured the fear, the uncertainly, the random lashing out. It reflected America in a way that no other news source had done. It managed to be respectful and sad, yet very funny. It was exactly what America needed.
Although this story is funny, I think its also a reflection of how the Chinese view the US. They view Americans as shallow and self-centered, and a story like this would jump out at them to confirm thier beliefs. Its like they wanted it to be true so they could say "See what dumb things those Americans are doing now!"
The thing that struck me here was not "how could they believe what they read in the Onion?", but "is there a segment of the Chinese that takes anything in print as fact?"
In our open society, we take freedom of the press to the extreme by publishing just about anything. It forces people to read news with a critical eye, which carries over to various aspects of out life. In a society where all information and editorial is controlled and filtered heavily, is it a surprise that "news" and "critical thinking" don't always go hand in hand.
I'm not trying to slight the Chinese here, I'm sure there are plenty of US Citizens who pick up the Onion and believe it as fact -- I'm sure it would confuse the heck out of my grandmother. And how many times have you seen someone repost a good April Fools joke as fact?
So yes, it's funny, but apply your critical thinking and take it in context -- that the world is full of gullible people.
The poster's slightly mistaken. The really funny part of this story was the fact that it was posted BEFORE the election. Late in the evening on election day we were starting to realize how prescient it really was.
Or (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot has done this before as well (Score:5, Insightful)
I guesse we could say: Beijing Newspaper. YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Re:Or (Score:5, Insightful)
Good point. This is actually a very serious introduction to some of the key points of modern Islamic fundamentalism. When I first read it I went looked up Qutb. No other major media outlet that I know of has bothered to give people the starting point to actually find out how and why bin Laden came to be.
Ignore The Onion at your peril.
Very clever (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Or (Score:4, Insightful)
For anyone who hasn't seen it, the article "Talking To Your Child About the WTC Attack [theonion.com]" is online. In fact, their entire "Holy Fucking Shit: America Under Attack [theonion.com]" It's the single most brilliant issue of the Onion ever. It captured the fear, the uncertainly, the random lashing out. It reflected America in a way that no other news source had done. It managed to be respectful and sad, yet very funny. It was exactly what America needed.
Re:Shameless Karma Whoring (Score:2, Insightful)
Satire and Freedom of Speech (Score:3, Insightful)
In our open society, we take freedom of the press to the extreme by publishing just about anything. It forces people to read news with a critical eye, which carries over to various aspects of out life. In a society where all information and editorial is controlled and filtered heavily, is it a surprise that "news" and "critical thinking" don't always go hand in hand.
I'm not trying to slight the Chinese here, I'm sure there are plenty of US Citizens who pick up the Onion and believe it as fact -- I'm sure it would confuse the heck out of my grandmother. And how many times have you seen someone repost a good April Fools joke as fact?
So yes, it's funny, but apply your critical thinking and take it in context -- that the world is full of gullible people.
Re:One of the Onion's greatest stories... (Score:2, Insightful)
-Aaron